Heaven's Gate This film is a logical continuation of the General Shubnikov Corps shot three years earlier. To some extent, they could be considered a dilogy, because the director is the same – Damir Viatich-Berezhnykh, as well as both screenwriters – Kirill Rapoport and Vladimir Baskakov. If the name of Rapoport is heard by many because of a whole galaxy of wonderful films, then not much is known about Vladimir Evtikhianovich Baskakov, although his creative biography is not limited to two declared films. Take at least the documentary “Marshal Rokossovsky”. Life and Time was included in the list of the most interesting documentaries shot in the former USSR in 1987. Or the fact that Vladimir Baskakov for 15 years was the director of the All-Union Research Institute of Cinema Arts. All this shows the high level of the product he touched. This also applies to the “Gateway to Heaven.”
The film is entirely sustained in the traditions of high-quality Soviet cinema. This applies not only to directing (as a war correspondent, Vladimir Baskakov has something to tell the audience), but also to the characters. And also involved in the shooting of various equipment. The films of those years are especially sympathetic because the directors are very attentive to detail. For example, if a German officer appears in the frame, he will necessarily speak his native language, and the announcer with good diction translate his words behind the scenes. Types are also chosen carefully: a German general (a true Aryan) will necessarily meet the "Kaiser standard" - ascetic unflappable blonde. This creates a general positive attitude, and a certain amount of pathetics does not interfere with this, because the yard is 45 years old, and the Soviet soldier has every right to do so.